The order was lifted about about 10 a.m. Tuesday, but airlines are warning that it could take days for the system to return to normal.

The airport’s official Twitter account posted Tuesday that the “extreme cold [caused] equipment freezing and safety issues for employees,” which put a stop to nearly every flight into the busy travel hub in the morning.

Airports in Montreal and Ottawa were also being hit with numerous delays and cancellations, which along with the issues at Pearson will likely have a domino effect at other airports as airplanes fail to arrive on time.

The Pearson arrivals board showed most flights were cancelled or delayed throughout the morning. About 31% of all flights arriving Tuesday have been cancelled, 240 in total.

Departures are faring somewhat better with 20% of flights cancelled as of nearly 11 a.m., 159 flights in total.

Meanwhile, the Toronto District School Board and Catholic board have cancelled all buses for Tuesday, although schools are still open. The move affects about 35,000 students. The TDSB also says that children are not supposed to go outside for recess if it is below -27. Classes at the Island Public/Natural Science School are cancelled.

The French public school board, Conseil Scholaire Viamonde, shut its 47 schools across southern and western Ontario Tuesday due to the extreme cold, sending parents scrambling to find care for 10,000 students.

The ground stop has been lifted and aircraft are once again arriving. Please continue to check with your airlines for schedule changes.

Buses are being used to assist streetcar lines, the TTC says, as the extreme cold causes frozen switches in yards and difficulties with the vehicles.

“Today’s extreme cold has delayed the roll-out of morning streetcar service due to frozen switches in Russell and Roncesvalles yards and problems with the pneumatic air lines on some vehicles. As the extreme cold continues, the TTC is warning that morning rush hour will see a shortage of streetcars across the network,” the TTC said in a statement.

The TTC says its streetcars, many of them over 30 years old, does not respond well to extreme cold. Its new fleet, which will be phased in starting in August, will not have the same difficulties in the cold, the transit service says.

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Pearson airport’s issues are reportedly worsened by a backlog of planes waiting for gates. There have been difficulties at the airport since Sunday when mild temperatures dropped rapidly overnight due to the so-called “polar vortex.”

Peel regional police say extra officers were called to the airport around 5:25 a.m. when a crowd of about 300 people around a luggage carousel in Terminal 3 became “irate” because they couldn’t get their bags.

Airlines urge passengers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

Air Canada issued a travel advisory for much of the East Coast Tuesday, and warned its passengers it expected the issues to linger until at least Thursday.

It also urged passengers whose flights had been cancelled not to go to the airport to rebook their flights due the lengthy line ups already at the airport, and directed them to their rebooking tool on the airline’s website.

The country’s largest carrier revised ticketing policy as well to allow those scheduled to fly in the next three days to rebook without penalty at a later date.

WestJet says that baggage will be problematic throughout the day and is also waving its rebooking fees on affected flights Tuesday, subject to availability.

“We have been advised that in order to efficiently process incoming aircraft, guests will be offloaded as soon as gates become available but baggage will have to remain on board some flights until sometime Tuesday,” the airline said in a statement on its website.

Margaret Phillipo, 63, and her husband spent the night at a hotel after waiting in line three hours after their flight was delayed.

“Last night, everyone was irritated. The lines were long and crazy but the personnel were very good,” she told the Post. “It’s just very tiring.”

They had an ugly ending to their three-week vacation in the west, visiting their son and were heading back to their home in Sydney, N.S. Their 8:30 p.m. flight was delayed and they were given hotel vouchers, reaching their room at 2 a.m.

Erik Gouthro, 27, has been trying to get home for the past three days after spending the holidays surveying the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico for work.

The hydrographic surveyor arrived at a stopover in Chicago two days ago to find out that his flight to Charlottetown, P.E.I. was delayed.

He got into Toronto around 9 p.m. on Monday night and found out that his flight was delayed again.

Gouthro waited in line for seven hours – midnight until 7 a.m. – to rebook his flight. He opted to stick out the night in a corner of the airport instead of using his hotel vouchers, which were provided to him by Air Canada, making use of a nearby plug to charge his phone and laptop.

“It’s tiring,” he says. “[But] the Air Canada staff were excellent.”

On Monday, passengers were forced to wait hours on the tarmac due to a backlog of available gates for planes. When passengers finally deplaned they were welcomes by long lines at baggage claims and airport counters.

Environment Canada is warning of wind chills from -30 to -40 throughout Tuesday.

“Extreme caution is advised for people heading outdoors. Exposed skin may freeze in less than 5 minutes,” Environment Canada said in an alert.

“Moreover, it is also suggested to help prevent freezing of pipes in buildings, one could turn on the lowest tap in the house and let it run as a pencil-thin stream or fast drip while keeping indoor temperatures a little warmer at night.”

Meanwhile, pictures taken by Twitter users at TTC interchange stations, such as Bloor-Yonge and St. George, show extreme overcrowding.